Sting has no desire to retire anytime soon.
During an interview for CBS Sunday Morning this week, the Police star promoted the 2026 tour of his original musical The Last Ship, in which he plays shipyard foreman Jackie White.
Asked whether he ever considers taking a vacation or slowing down from his busy schedule, Sting – real name Gordon Sumner – joked that he didn’t understand the concept.
“I like to work,” he smiled. “Could I retire? I’m not sure I could do it. I haven’t developed that skill to just sit and do nothing. Perhaps I’m afraid of it. I haven’t prepared myself for it. But while I’m still fit enough to do my work, I will continue. At some point, I hope I have the objectivity to say, ‘OK, you’ve done enough. Go and sit on the farm.'”
Inspired by Sting’s own childhood experiences and knowledge of the shipbuilding industry in Wallsend, England, the singer-songwriter penned the music and lyrics for the production.
Reflecting on his pivot from pop music to working in the theatre, the 74-year-old emphasised that he has no regrets.
“I’m very grateful for the pop career, and it was a certain time in my life when I was of a certain age and looked a certain way and made a certain kind of music. But it can’t be my entire life. I don’t want to be just defined from how I was at the age of 25. I’m 74 now,” the Roxanne hitmaker continued.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Sting also praised Shaggy’s performance in The Last Ship.
The reggae musician plays the part of Ferryman in the show.
“I immediately knew Shaggy was the perfect man for the job. He has a great sense of mischief, a great sense of joy, but he’s also a natural actor,” he praised, while Shaggy interjected: “He knows me better than me! I was like, ‘I can’t really,’ and he was like, ‘No, you can do that.’ And then I’m doing it, and I was like, ‘I hate admitting that he was right!'”
The Last Ship opens at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York on 9 June.
